On the 16th of July, at around 8pm UTC+2, a malicious AUR package was uploaded to the AUR. Two other malicious packages were uploaded by the same user a few hours later. These packages were installing a script coming from the same GitHub repository that was identified as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).
The affected malicious packages are:
- librewolf-fix-bin
- firefox-patch-bin
- zen-browser-patched-bin
The Arch Linux team addressed the issue as soon as they became aware of the situation. As of today, 18th of July, at around 6pm UTC+2, the offending packages have been deleted from the AUR.
We strongly encourage users that may have installed one of these packages to remove them from their system and to take the necessary measures in order to ensure they were not compromised.
Follow up
There are more packages with this malware found.
minecraft-crackedttf-ms-fonts-allvesktop-bin-patchedttf-all-ms-fonts
What to do
If you installed any of these packages, check your running processes for one named systemd-initd (this is the RAT).
The suspicious packages have a patch from this now-inaccessible Codeberg repo: https://codeberg.org/arch_lover3/browser-patch
The Arch maintainers have been informed of all this already and are investigating.
@DirkMcCallahan @Tundra The AUR isn’t a trusted source, but most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that.
Half the posts on the Internet are people replying to requests for help with the message “read the wiki, the aur isn’t a trusted source, dummy”
Why do we have the AUR anyway?
Because it’s convenient and a good way to start to write PKGBUILDs quickly without becoming a proper package maintainer.
Isn’t that like how alpinelinux’s community repository works too?
The “Arch cult’s” holy book, the ArchWiki, states the following pretty clearly:
Mention of one’s use of the AUR for their needs doesn’t need to come with a disclaimer.
People who don’t read or don’t use their brain are going to keep not doing so, regardless.
Arch is not responsible for idiots.
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At the very least aur must verify you are associated with the domain name of the project, same as flathub.
that would literally defeat the entire purpose of the AUR
flathub still allows unverified submissions which is what I proposed. So, no, it wouldn’t.
AUR is the place for unverified submissions. The verified stuff typically ends up in the main repos.
That’s not at all how it works.
It is. Aur isn’t even officially supported by arch. You use it at your own risk, with the advantage being that pretty much everything is in it.